Adobe Launches Creative Suite 5

Adobe Systems announces Adobe Creative Suite 5 (CS5), a new release of its design and development software that the company claims suits virtually every creative workflow.

Adobe Systems has announced Adobe
Creative Suite 5 (CS5), a new release of its design and development
software that the company claims suits virtually every creative workflow.
Announced on April 12, the focus of the new version of the Adobe Creative
Suite is on interactivity, performance and maximizing the impact of digital
content and marketing campaigns across media and devices, Adobe officials said.
Creative Suite 5 brings
full-version upgrades of flagship creative tools, and features integration with
online content and digital marketing measurement and optimization capabilities
with technology from Adobe's acquisition
of Omniture. Creative Suite 5
includes access to Omniture technologies to capture, store and analyze
information generated by Websites and other sources.

Moreover, Adobe Flash Catalyst joins the Creative Suite and enables users to
design interactive content without writing code and improve the collaborative
process between designer and developer, Adobe officials said. The Adobe CS5
product family also enables the creation of content and applications for Flash
Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2, which are optimized for high performance on
mobile screens and designed to take advantage of native device capabilities for
a richer, more immersive user experience, the company said.

The new CS5 lineup is headlined by Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection,
which includes, in a single package, all of Adobe's renowned Creative Suite
tools, such as Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5, Flash Catalyst
CS5, Flash CS5 Professional, Dreamweaver CS5, Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and After
Effects CS5. These tools also are available separately or in one of the five
Creative Suite editions.
The complete Creative Suite 5 lineup consists of five versions: Creative
Suite 5 Master Collection, Creative Suite 5 Design Premium, Creative Suite 5
Web Premium, Creative Suite 5 Production Premium and Creative Suite 5 Design
Standard, as well as 15 point products, associated technologies and integration
with new Adobe CS Live Services-CS Live Services are complimentary for a
limited time.
"While Creative Suite 5 continues Adobe's storied history of delivering
astonishing new creative features, this release first and foremost addresses
the challenges facing publishers and creatives worldwide-how to build
profitable businesses around digital content," said Shantanu Narayen, president
and chief executive officer at Adobe, in a statement. "By coupling sophisticated
online business analytics with dazzling creative tools, we're ensuring that
publishers, designers and marketers can create, deliver and optimize beautiful,
high-impact digital experiences across media and devices."
Using Flash Professional CS5, designers and developers can create, test and
deliver Web content across a range of mobile platforms and devices such as
smartphones, tablets, netbooks, smartbooks and other consumer electronics.
Users can look forward to deploying content in the browser with Flash Player
10.1 and as a stand-alone application with AIR
2 when those planned products become available. In addition, designers and
developers can now build AIR applications,
using the new Packager for iPhone tool preview, a component of Flash
Professional CS5 that can be deployed on the iPhone and iPad, with future
device support planned for Android, BlackBerry and Palm webOS, Adobe officials
said.
Meanwhile, more than 250 new features have been integrated into the Adobe
Creative Suite 5 Master Collection, Adobe officials said. InDesign CS5 is
powering the transition to digital publishing with new interactive documents
and enhanced electronic reader device support. Image creation and editing get a
boost in Photoshop CS5 with Refine Edge, which offers better edge detecting
technology and masking results in less time. Photoshop CS5 also includes the
ability to remove an image element and immediately replace the missing pixels
with Content-Aware Fill. New stroke options enable Adobe Illustrator CS5 users
to create strokes of variable widths and precisely adjust the width at any
point along the stroke.
In addition, Adobe officials said engineering breakthroughs throughout Adobe
Creative Suite 5 Master Collection work together to dramatically improve
performance. Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects are now
native 64-bit applications on both Mac and Windows, enabling users to work more
fluidly when working on high-resolution projects. And the NVIDIA
GPU-accelerated Adobe Mercury Playback Engine allows Adobe Premiere Pro CS5
users to open projects faster, refine effects-rich HD sequences in real time
and play back complex projects without rendering.
Moreover, the Roto Brush tool in After Effects helps users isolate moving
foreground elements in a fraction of the normal time. In addition, Dreamweaver
CS5 now supports popular content management systems Drupal, Joomla and
WordPress, allowing designers to get accurate views of dynamic Web content from
within the product.
The Adobe Creative Suite 5 products integrate with new Adobe CS Live, a set
of five online services that accelerate key aspects of the creative workflow
and enable designers to focus on creating their best work, the company said.
CS Live online services include Adobe BrowserLab, Adobe CS Review, Acrobat.com,
Adobe Story and SiteCatalyst NetAverages from Omniture. Adobe CS Review enables
online design reviews directly from Creative Suite 5 applications, while Adobe
BrowserLab is a tool for testing Website content across different browsers and
operating systems. NetAverages provides Web usage data that helps reduce the
guesswork early in the creative process when designing for Web and mobile.
Adobe Story is a collaborative scriptwriting tool that improves production and
post-production workflows in CS5 Production Premium. Access to Acrobat.com
services, such as Adobe ConnectNow Web conferencing, is also included to
enhance discussion and information exchange with colleagues and clients around
the globe.
The Adobe Creative Suite 5 products are scheduled to ship within 30 days,
with availability through Adobe Authorized Resellers, the Adobe Store and Adobe
Direct Sales. Estimated street price for the suites is expected to be $2,599
for Master Collection CS5, $1,899 for CS5 Design Premium, $1,799 for CS5 Web
Premium, $1,699 for CS5 Production Premium and $1,299 for CS5 Design Standard.
Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are available.
For more information about features, OS support, upgrade policies, pricing
and international versions, go to www.adobe.com/go/creativesuitemaster.

Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.